Description
The Ponte di San Giorgio is the long bridge, about 800 meters, that separates Lake Mezzo from Lake Inferiore, linking the center of Mantua, on the side of the Gonzaga palace, with the opposite shore at San Giorgio.
It was first built of wood in 1198-1199, when the engineer Alberto Pitentino turned the marshes into the lakes of Mantua, and rebuilt in masonry by Ludovico Gonzaga at the end of the 14th century. For centuries it was roofed: that is how it appears in the background of Andrea Mantegna's Death of the Virgin, now in the Prado in Madrid.
The bridge protected the fortified village of San Giorgio on the far shore. During Napoleon's siege of 1796 the French razed the village almost entirely: only the so-called rocca di Sparafucile survived, named after a character in Verdi's Rigoletto. In 1922 the arches were filled in and the drawbridge torn down.
It was first built of wood in 1198-1199, when the engineer Alberto Pitentino turned the marshes into the lakes of Mantua, and rebuilt in masonry by Ludovico Gonzaga at the end of the 14th century. For centuries it was roofed: that is how it appears in the background of Andrea Mantegna's Death of the Virgin, now in the Prado in Madrid.
The bridge protected the fortified village of San Giorgio on the far shore. During Napoleon's siege of 1796 the French razed the village almost entirely: only the so-called rocca di Sparafucile survived, named after a character in Verdi's Rigoletto. In 1922 the arches were filled in and the drawbridge torn down.